3d procedural generated buildings for games

snake85027

I just have a question on environment development for games like grand theft auto, saints row, watch dogs basically any open world game setting. Do companies ever use Procedural building generation where you just adjust different settings like floors, windows, building shape ect? These worlds are so huge I just assume that these companies have their own internal tools for this.

I use a package at work called Pool Studio and they have it to where you bring an image in and use a line tool and basically draw out the outline of the house and set the height of it by the settings and then click on a button to add a roof and the model is already unwrapped and you just pick what ever texture you want, also when you add windows you just click on the window button and appears in the 3d view and you place it wherever you want, already textures and it has different settings like height, width , what kind of frames. Anyway just curious.

Here is a video I found like an hour ago that does procedural building generation and does a great job on polycount budget. I imagine studios having something like this.
http://youtu.be/U5GjTld_Dww


This is pool studio.
http://youtu.be/bgBOxXg2gNE

snake85027

Here is another video of someone creating Roads by simple clicking on the terrain and their engine does the rest.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tp0HZKt_eA"]World Editor - Roads! (C++, OpenGL, SDL) - YouTube[/ame]

sprunghunt

this sounds like what you're after:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ProceduralBuildings.html

also it looks like the snowdrop engine created by Ubisoft has a similar feature:

http://youtu.be/o8xliqAGado?t=1m54s

snake85027

Thats really sweet right there. I wonder if companies use this? Also if your making a city whats the best way to build roads, I made a small street scene in my site and used basic squares for the road but I was assume that some kind of terrain editor would be used for games like grand theft and saints row because of the different property slopes.
I used the terrain editor in unreal before and if I was going to create a path that had turns of a road seemed difficult. maybe its changed. Thats why something like the above video would be awesome to see in unreal, to where you just click and control how you want a path to go.

Eric Chadwick

Take a look at CryEngine's road system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QFE0AJM3U

If you need to generate roads by hand, there are many ways to help speed up the process. We have some links here worth checking out.
http://wiki.polycount.net/Multitexture

You might also find this recent thread interesting
Modular builder script

If you're interested in roads for Unreal check out this video series from Hourences
http://www.hourences.com/product/the-expert-classes-udk-assetdevelopment1/

snake85027

That Cryengine Road tool is exactly what I was looking for. Does udk have something like the road builder in Cryengine?

I found this sweet video on road building but I think someone made their own script and its not apart of unreal udk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqQKBvUI96Y

snake85027

This is also something I wish UDK had. This would be the kind of tool id like to see in udk or the one from cryengine is great too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzU9XMa9K6c

snake85027

any body here that worked on watch dogs or grand theft or saints row that can share how they designed their city lay outs as well as their roads...I might be over analyzing it but the roads seem free flowing and really great texture work. I guess i just wonder how they are made, are they by hand piece by piece or is it a in house plugin where you just click to whatever path and it builds the roads procedurally like chadwicks post. Also then how are the highways connected? thanks in advance..any videos or comments would be appreciated.

snake85027

like in this example it looks like the road is part of the terrain and very easy to manipulate i guess and I assume by points? if anybody worked on grand theft that can take some screenshots or has a video of their editor haha...anyway i am focusing on this because i believe building roads as a foundation is a good place to start when laying out levels... one day id like to build a shadowrun universe in this kind of environment,saints row,grand theft, watch dogs and all that greatness.

snake85027

http://youtu.be/9J6CCouenzM

snake85027

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?9265-Engine-News-6-11

pretty awesome to hear